Static Makes His Return In This Review of New Titans #38

This review contains spoilers

New Titans #38 opens at Mount Titans in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, with Jon Kent giving Virgil Hawkins a tour of the base to recruit him. As Static checks out the digs, he immediately senses heavy internal tension. Elsewhere, Yara Flor suffers horrifying nightmares calling her home, and Cyborg secretly runs unauthorized experiments in the Omega Forge deep below.

When Jon introduces Virgil to the team, the automated defense drones flag Static as an unverified security threat and run a biometric scan. Overwhelmed, Static loses control of his electromagnetic powers, firing off a massive wave that completely blackouts Mount Titans.

The blackout triggers arguments across the team: Cyborg and Jon fight over recruit protocols, while Nightwing and Stephanie Brown clash over leadership and past trauma. Seeing the mess, Static tries to walk away, but as Yara Flor reaches her breaking point with her visions, New Titans #38 closes with the two setting off together for the Amazon.

Analysis

New Titans #38 functions heavily as a bridge issue, leaning into dialogue and character dynamics rather than an action-heavy plot. Tate Brombal uses Virgil’s arrival to show just how broken the Titans are right now; everywhere Static steps, he stumbles right into secret agendas or heated arguments. This is apparent whether looking at the back and forth between Nightwing and Batgirl, the continuing shenangians Vic is tackling with the Heart of Apokolips, or Red Devil’s hidden secrets, the New Titans much more less than like a team.

Bringing Static back into the mix is easily the highlight. Seeing Virgil interact with Jon is great, and the moment his powers accidentally fry the base’s grid gives a solid visual display of how high-level—and potentially volatile—his abilities are when he gets stressed, especially considering how New Titans #38 began. It will also be interesting to see how Brombal plays out this idea that Titans vets Nightwing and Cyborg are not completely on board with his addition to the team.

Sami Basri and Bruno Abdias deliver crisp art throughout. The panel layouts cleanly track the chaos when Static overloads, and Adriano Lucas’s colors create a cool contrast between the bright base and the dark atmosphere of Yara’s nightmare scenes. My main issue is that it tries to touch on too many subplots at once—Cyborg’s secret project, Nightwing’s leadership guilt, Eva’s identity struggles, and Yara’s visions—leaving the actual plot feeling a bit thin. I really thought this would be about Static’s debut. But alas!

Final Thoughts

I feel New Titans #38 didn’t do much, plot-wise from the standpoint of introducing Static. I was looking for more. It actually did too much of everything else. I enjoyed it as it brings him back and sets up what’s to come with this apparent focus on him and Yara as they head to the Amazon. There actually seems to be a story there. I will continue reading no matter what, however, to see how Static is further developed before his actual ongoing series is released.